Sangklaburi - Collection
View on a temple at the Thai-Myanmar border and a Cetonidae, which I found there along the roadside.
Sangklaburi is a small town in the West of Thailand, very close to Myanmar. To me it was quite interesting to go there, as some of my friends, who had already travelled there, told me about the beautiful scenery and above all about the many opportunities and easy access to insects. Especially of interest to me were the tales of a good friend of mine who collected a Platynocephalus myashitai in Sangklaburi last year. To be honest, it took me 5 hours from Kanchanaburi by bus, and I have to admit that as soon as I arrived in the Guesthouse, I saw huge Buprestidae beetles flying on a Cassia-Tree (?), as well as a green snake that was hiding in the tree. Sadly the tree was too high, so I did not manage to catch any of these, nor take pictures.
Sangklaburi is located on the shores of a big lake, many houses are floating houses, very beautiful to look at. A special feature of this town is that it has the longest Teak-Wood bridge in Thailand. It is almost not travelled by tourists, only very few backpackers come there, but there are some orphanages with Europeans working there. That is a good idea as people in this region to me seemed to be very poor and the city at night is a bit dangerous, due to the stray dogs that get very aggressive at night and hoard up to bite people. That is why I did night collection only one day in town, even though they have bright white street lights, with amazing insects flying around them. But running home fearing for my life hunted by half wild dogs was such an experience that I decided to collect only at the small light in front of my bungalow. Yet, I managed to find many interesting smaller Anomala spec., some very small Dynastinae, Curcilionidae and many others. In the day time, near to some temples, I found Stick insects and a big Anomala spec. It was incredible to see all the Grasshopper species, some of which were quite big in size.
Anomala spec. and a huge grasshopper, whose size was more than 10cm.
One has to consider that it was rain season when I was in West Thailand, which explains, why I did not find as many species as expected. In addition to the dangers in that city, always have an open eye for snakes, the week before I was there somebody was bitten by a King Cobra, which is not uncommon here, if local sources are right.
Anyways, I decided to do a day visit to Myanmar and crossed the border at the Three Pagodas Pass. It was really amazing to see how much Myanmar and Thailand differ already at the frontier. Just after crossing the border, I was surrounded by taxi drivers who wanted to take me to the night markets, etc. I managed to find one that was able to speak English fluently and he told me that Chalcosoma ssp. and Eupatorus ssp. are quite common in that area, yet the problem was that it was raining all day and thus it was impossible to find them. Usually they are sitting on a certain kind of tree, I was told, where they drink the tree juices. I was wondering around a bit with my umbrella, yet, except a small red Cetonidae, probably Protaetia, I did not find anything of interest. Yet, Myanmar, from what I have seen seems to be a beautiful country perfect for collection, and no wonder the most interesting beetles come from that country at the moment.
To conclude, Sangklaburi is definitely worth a stop for the more experienced traveller, if one is interested in nature and insects, that place is a must visit, as incredibly many species can already be found in town. Any questions concerning Sangklaburi, please feel free to ask.
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